1 ``pygrader`` is a directory-based grade database for grading course
2 assignments. Besides tracking grades locally, you can also use it to
3 automatically mail grades to students and professors associated with
4 the course. For secure communication, PGP_ can be used to sign and/or
5 encrypt any of these emails.
16 I've packaged ``pygrader`` for Gentoo_. You need layman_ and
17 my `wtk overlay`_. Install with::
19 # emerge -av app-portage/layman
21 # emerge -av dev-python/pygrader
26 ``pygrader`` is a simple package. The only external dependency
27 outside the Python 3 standard library is my `pgp-mime`_ package.
32 ``pygrader`` is available as a Git_ repository::
34 $ git clone git://tremily.us/pygrader.git
36 See the homepage_ for details. To install the checkout, run the
39 $ python setup.py install
44 Pygrader will help keep you organized in a course where the students
45 submit homework via email, or the homework submissions are otherwise
46 digital (i.e. scanned in after submission). There is currently no
47 support for multiple graders, although I will likely add this in the
48 future. In the following sections, I'll walk you through
49 administering the homework for the ``test`` course.
51 All of the processing involves using the ``pg.py`` command. Run::
60 Pygrader receives submissions and assigns grades via email. In order
61 to send email, it needs to connect to an SMTP_ server. See the
62 pgp-mime documentation for details on configuring you SMTP connection.
63 You can test your SMTP configuration by sending yourself a test
66 $ pg.py -VVV smtp -a rincewind@uu.edu -t rincewind@uu.edu
71 Once you've got email submission working, you need to configure the
72 course you'll be grading. Each course lives in its own directory, and
73 the basic setup looks like the ``test`` example distributed with
74 pygrader. The file that you need to get started is the config file in
75 the course directory::
77 $ cat test/course.conf
79 assignments: Attendance 1, Attendance 2, Attendance 3, Attendance 4,
80 Attendance 5, Attendance 6, Attendance 7, Attendance 8, Attendance 9,
81 Assignment 1, Assignment 2, Exam 1, Exam 2
84 students: Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, Aragorn
109 emails: eye@tower.edu
113 emails: bb@shire.org, bb@greyhavens.net
117 The format is a bit wordy, but it is also explicit and easily
118 extensible. The time it takes to construct this configuration file
119 should be a small portion of the time you will spend grading
122 If a person has the ``pgp-key`` option set, that key will be used to
123 encrypt messages to that person and sign messages from that person
124 with PGP_. It will also be used to authenticate ownership of incoming
125 emails. You'll need to have GnuPG_ on your local host for this to
126 work, and the user running pygrader should have the associated keys in
127 their keychain. The ``pgp-fingerprint`` option is used when verifying
128 that signed emails are signed by the appropriate person. You can
129 extract the fingerprint for the PGP key using GnuPG::
131 $ gpg --fingerprint 4332B6E3
132 pub 2048R/4332B6E3 2012-03-21
133 Key fingerprint = B2ED BE0E 771A 4B87 08DD 16A7 511A EDA6 4332 B6E3
134 uid pgp-mime-test (http://blog.tremily.us/posts/pgp-mime/) <pgp-mime@invalid.com>
136 Processing submissions
137 ----------------------
139 As the due date approaches, student submissions will start arriving in
140 your inbox. Use ``pg.py``'s ``mailpipe`` command to sort them into
141 directories. This will also extract any files that were attached to
142 the emails and place them in that persons assignment directory::
144 $ pg.py -d test mailpipe -m maildir -i ~/.maildir -o ./mail-old
146 Use ``pg.py``'s ``todo`` command to check for ungraded submissions::
148 $ pg.py -d test todo mail grade
150 To see how everyone's doing, you can print a table of grades with
151 ``pg.py``'s ``tabulate`` command::
153 $ pg.py -d test tabulate -s
155 When you want to notify students of their grades, you can send them
156 all out with ``pg.py``'s ``email`` command::
158 $ pg.py -d test email assignment 'Exam 1'
163 Run the internal unit tests using nose_::
165 $ nosetests --with-doctest --doctest-tests pygrader
167 If a Python-3-version of ``nosetests`` is not the default on your
168 system, you may need to try something like::
170 $ nosetests-3.2 --with-doctest --doctest-tests pygrader
175 This project is distributed under the `GNU General Public License
176 Version 3`_ or greater.
187 For a similar project, see `Alex Heitzmann pygrade`_, which keeps the
188 grade history in a single log file and provides more support for using
189 graphical interfaces.
192 .. _PGP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy
193 .. _Gentoo: http://www.gentoo.org/
194 .. _layman: http://layman.sourceforge.net/
195 .. _wtk overlay: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/Gentoo_overlay/
196 .. _pgp-mime: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/pgp-mime/
197 .. _Git: http://git-scm.com/
198 .. _homepage: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/pygrader/
199 .. _SMTP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol
200 .. _GnuPG: http://www.gnupg.org/
201 .. _nose: http://readthedocs.org/docs/nose/en/latest/
202 .. _GNU General Public License Version 3: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
203 .. _Alex Heitzmann's pygrade: http://code.google.com/p/pygrade/